Benefiting the Midway Shelter for Abused Women and Children – an Alameda-based non-profit group with a great cause – the event organizers have a small 5K run and walk race planned for Bay Farm next weekend.

A 5K run, 1-mile walk and a free kids fun run will help bring local runners together for a great cause. Donations also are being accepted.

If you’re interested, you can pick up a registration form from the soon-to-be Total Woman Gym at South Shore, or head to Alamedarace.com to register online.

Launching from the Harbor Bay Ferry terminal, it should be a small, fun event that costs just $20 for adults to register for.

I will be out taking pictures at the Survival Dash 10K run along and around Crissy Field on Saturday, August 18th. For my distance running friends, this is a nice short run for a change.

The run is put on to help support the Semper Fi Fund to provide financial support for injured members of the Armed Forces. I hope our government does not forget about the service members who get injured in one way or another but I am sure every little bit of extra helps.

Join us for a small race with great volunteers and the proceeds go to a great cause. Hopefully the sun will come out and I can get some good pictures.

Update from from the Survival Dash race director:

I’ve made a 15% discount code, “alamedarunners,” that you’re welcome to add to the site. It expires on 8/15 at 5pm.

Concerning the Semper Fi Fund, they work on covering costs that the military doesn’t (adaptive housing/transportation for those in wheelchairs, specialized and adaptive equipment at home like software programs and visual aids). The coolest part, in my opinion, is Team Semper Fi. They encourage teamwork and rapid rehabilitation by providing coaches, specialized sporting equipment, team uniforms, and travel expenses for recovering service members and their families.

Swimming is one of the most popular sports of the summer Olympics, and the athletes and technology behind swimming get a large amount of attention.

For regular people, swimming may be nothing more than a dip in the pool for relief from summer heat. Some athletes have coaches and work on swim form and time for swim meets, triathlons, and other athletic sports.

For Olympic swimmers, however, it’s a mix of hard work in the pool and cutting-edge technology that gives them the opportunity to smash world records every time they enter the pool.

To help out even further, researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a humanoid robot able to closely mimic a swimmer’s movement in the water. Ideally, the humanoid can help researchers learn how swimmers can glide through the water with a minimal amount of drag.

We have a lot of exciting things in the works here at Alameda Runners. I recently started working with several new companies and PR agencies, so that means we have some great articles and reviews in the pipeline.

For a sneak peek, I can confirm at least two new projects that Ted and I have on the schedule.

I asked a few people on Twitter and Facebook about compression products, and the results were unanimous: 2XU is the company to speak with. Originally founded and based in Australia, 2XU has invaded the US with high-quality products aimed for runners, cyclists and triathletes looking for top notch gear – but it comes at a price.

Giro, known for making helmets and shoes, also is taking some time to answer a few questions for Alameda Runners.

We have a couple of reviews to post in the next couple of weeks – and even more cool stuff is rolling in! Thanks to our readers for continually showing up to read our ramblings, because we obviously couldn’t do it without you.

Thanks for the participating companies, because they could easily shrug us aside (even though I’m persistent) with little repercussion.

More than 150 participants will ride from Oakland to Sacramento, protesting extremely reckless school spending.

For those not looking to make the full journey, there are 45-mile and 65-mile routes also available.

Proceeds will be directed to Oakland Technical High School, Oakland International High School, Claremont Middle School and Emerson Elementary School. Event organizers want to generate $60,000 for the ride — and depending on the success of the 2012 ride, additional cities may be added in the future.

In honor of Bike to Work Day next week, here is some information about BikeAlameda, an island-based bike advocacy group. Here is a tidbit they had posted in the Alameda Sun, titled “Promoting a Bicycle-Friendly City: BikeAlameda.”

BikeAlameda has been working on behalf of cyclists for more than 10 years. Through the offering of free bike-safety classes, hundreds of people are now riding safely and confidently on Alameda streets.

BikeAlameda was directly involved with one of the most significant bike improvement projects in Alameda. The Fernside Bike Lane Project provides a physical barrier between vehicles and cyclists, most of whom are students from Lincoln Middle School.

All cyclists can now enjoy and benefit from a safe route between the main island, the Bay Farm Island Bike/Pedestrian Bridge, and the community of Harbor Bay.

BikeAlameda is funded entirely by memberships, donations, and grants. Please visit the website at www.bikealameda.org and learn more about our mission and activities. Your financial support through a membership or donation is essential to the continuing efforts of the organization.

The next time you ride along one of Alameda’s great tree lined streets in a marked bike lane or lock your bike to one of real bike racks along Park Street, in Alameda South Shore Center, or at the Alameda Theater, think about BikeAlameda and its efforts in promoting a bicycle friendly city.

If nothing else, appreciate the work that BikeAlameda and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition have done to make the streets of Alameda and the East Bay safer to ride on.

As part of preparation for Bike to Work Day, Alameda Bicycle mechanic George, will be at Alameda South Shore Center on Saturday, starting at 12:00 p.m. He’ll be conducting free safety checks on all bikes brought by, and it’s a great community service. (Per the AB Facebook account.)

Come by between 12:00-2:00 p.m. to have your bikes briefly looked at.

If you will be participating on May 10, here is an interactive glance of all the East Bay energizer stations.

Athletes like music — but trying to experience the outdoors with your expensive MP3 player and earbuds can end in disaster. That’s why press statements regarding new electronics geared towards athletes tend to pique my interests.

The Ematic electronics company recently announced the eSport Clip MP3/video player, a $29 media player with 4GB flash memory storage. The device also includes a 5-megapixel camera, USB 2.0 port, and a 1.8″ color display.

Honestly, I haven’t tried Ematic’s products before — and never heard of the company before receiving the press release — but the Ematic eSport Clip MP3 player is a relatively low-cost investment to a possibly decent product.

Hello folks — I am still alive and well, in case you noticed I’ve been gone and Ted has done the majority of writing on Alameda Runners these days. I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things here and on AlamedaTech, but wanted to give you a brief update as to what is going on.

Remember our friends over at Greenlight Apparel in Fremont? (If not, they make the quality California International Marathon and Oakland Running Festival apparel.)

I’m working on another interview with the company, and will again focus on Greenlight Apparel’s products and humanitarian efforts geared towards illegal child labor.

Today was the big day for Alameda and See Jane Run Sports. There was a huge turnout for the participants but not many spectators along the course. I write the Alameda running blog and I barely heard about the event. Perhaps I will work with the event organizers next year to help get the word out.

I rode my bike along the course to see it well laid out with lots of port-o-potty’s. There were not enough. The toilet lines at the start line were huge. The bag check line was even longer. I also heard a lot of complaints about the timing chips not being available with bibs for early bag pick up.

The people arriving early had no problems with parking, check in and toilet lines. The volunteers were all nice to speak with and friendly with everyone who came by. The race started with a pre-race warm with a few classic 80’s aerobic workout songs and two out of sync group leaders. It did not matter, everyone was having fun. The race started on time! The start line looked big upon arrival, one hour before start time. When 2,000 people were lined up for the start of the race, it looked small. I rode my bike with a couple of ladies who started 5 minutes late and were planning on completing the race with a finishing time of 1:50. It seemed like a good plan until we turned the corner to a long 1.5 mile straight road that was full of runners. I left them to deal with the crowd. I wonder how they made out.

It was a very good event with a few problems at the start line. There was a big group of runners but course was configured for the crowds. The police at the street crossings did an excellent job keeping the runners moving. We had one lost driver complaining about the lack of detour signs to the airport for Bay Farm residents. Bay Farm is a small Island attached to Alameda proper by a bridge. It has about 5 square miles of populated areas with 4 roads leading off the Island. Three of them go to the airport, one was closed. The event organizers get a pass on this complaint.

Ted rates See Jane Run, Alameda a huge success. Maybe, I will carry my 2:15 pace sign next year. Probably not, it would just feel awkward joining a women’s event.